Ammonia cracking is an endothermic reaction with characteristics similar to those of steam methane reforming. As a result, large scale ammonia crackers are likely to more than a passing similarity to the steam-methane reformers which are currently used to convert natural gas to hydrogen. When transferring technology from one industry to another the challenge is to distinguish between know-how which benefits the new application, and which should therefore be applied; and know-how which is detrimental to the new application and therefore needs to be either unlearnt or relearnt. The presentation will cover the choices facing the designer of a large-scale…

A group of 28 global organisations (H2Zero) announced significant new pledges to drive the development of the global hydrogen industry at COP26 last week. On the supply side, the pledges add up to 18 million tonnes per year "lower carbon" hydrogen landing in global markets, displacing fossil hydrogen, conventional transport fuel and natural gas for industrial heating applications. On the demand side (including the use of lower carbon hydrogen for fertiliser, chemicals and explosives production), the pledges add up to 1.6 million tonnes. Of particular interest is Yara's pledge to source &/or produce at least 3 million tonnes of reduced carbon ammonia by 2030.